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William  Henry  Reid's 

Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life 

From  1855  to  December  5,  1907 
His  Sixty-eighth  Birthday 


CCORDING  to  the  family 
records  I  was  born  Decem- 
ber 5,  1840,  at  Mount  Pleas- 
ant, Jefferson  County,  Ohio. 
I  have  been  told  that  my  par- 
ents received  the  news  of  the 
election  of  William  Henry 
Harrison  as  President  of  the  United  States  on 
the  same  day,  but  I  do  not  recollect  whether 
I  heard  of  it  then  or  not.  Harrison  was  elected 
in  November,  but  there  was  no  telegraph  in 
those  days  and  the  news  did  not  reach  Mount 
Pleasant  until  my  birthday. 

I  had  two  brothers.  My  older  was  born 
February  22  —  Washington's  birthday  —  and 
my  younger  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  I  have 
always  rather  suspected  that  I  was  intended 
as  a  Christmas  present  but  I  got  there  a  little 
ahead  of  time. 

My  father  was  a  wheelwright,  a  wagon- 
maker,  and  in  my  youthful  days  he  utilized  my 
spare  time  as  a  helper  about  his  shop.  I 
ground  paint,  did  some  painting  and  worked 
at  odd  jobs  of  repairing,  mostly  on  Saturdays 
when  there  was  no  school.  In  vacation  time  I 
was  quite  steadily  employed  in  my  father's 
shop  and  elsewhere.  I  worked  on  the  roads  to 
pay  my  father's  road  tax,  hoed  corn,  worked 
in  the  harvest  fields  and  made  myself  gener- 
ally useful  about  the  home  doing  everything  a 
boy  could  do  profitably  and  helpfully.  I  would 
wash,  scrub,  hang  out  the  clothes  lines  and  the 
clothes,  churn,  drive  the  cows  to  and  from  the 
pasture  morning  and  evening,  sweep  the  side- 
walk in  front  of  the  house  before  breakfast 


(we  always  breakfasted  at  5  o'clock  A.  M., 
dined  at  11  o'clock  A.  M.,  had  supper  at  5 
o'clock  P.  M.  and  went  to  bed  with  the  chick- 
ens at  7:30,  although  on  occasions  I  was  per- 
mitted to  sit  up  until  9  o'clock).  These  habits 
of  early  rising  and  retiring  have  been  contin- 
uous with  me  during  my  entire  lifetime. 

I  attended  the  common  schools  until  1855. 
About  the  time  that  I  was  starting  to  school  I 
recall  that  there  was  a  war,  the  Mexican  war, 
and  I  recollect  that  all  the  money  we  had  in 
those  days  was  Mexican  money.  We  did  not 
get  much  money  and  then  only  at  harvest 
times  when  the  farmers  went  out  with  their 
sickles  to  gather  the  crops.  Everybody  went 
out  in  those  days  and  helped  their  neighbors  at 
the  harvest  and  during  the  threshing  time. 
People  were  very  neighborly  and  helpfulness 
was  the  rule  in  the  community.  Horse  power 
threshers  had  come  into  general  use  and  went 
from  farm  to  farm  during  the  season.  The 
coming  of  the  threshers  was  quite  an  event  in 
those  days  and  there  was  a  social  side  to  the 
work  which  made  it  very  pleasant. 

In  the  winter  of  1855  I  went  to  work  in  a 
country  store  at  Franklin,  Tappan  Post  Office, 
Harrison  County — an  adjoining  county — thir- 
ty miles  from  my  home.  During  my  two 
years'  service  there  I  became  familiar  with 
trade  and  the  almost  lost  art  of  barter.  In  the 
Franklin  store  we  exchanged  merchandise  for 
produce,  butter,  eggs,  chickens,  feathers,  soap, 
honey,  everything  the  farmers  had  to  offer. 
The  knowledge  gained  in  the  business  was 
practical.  I  knew  just  how  much  calico  and 
trimmings   were  required   for   a   dress — these 


were  the  days  before  the  sewing  machines — 
and  besides  I  became  acquainted  with  the 
farmers  and  their  famiHes  and  knew  intimate- 
ly everybody  worth  knowing  about  the  coun- 
try. 

We  took  our  produce  to  Wheeling,  Vir- 
ginia, our  nearest  and  most  important  market, 
and  when  it  was  sold  we  bought  dry  goods  and 
groceries  and  brought  them  back  to  trade  at 
the  store.  I  think  that  I  received  my  best  edu- 
cation in  that  business  and  I  look  back  upon  it 
with  considerable  pleasure.  It  served  to  ac- 
quaint me  with  actual  life  at  first  hands,  to 
know  human  nature  and  study  people  at  close 
range.  Very  little  money  was  used  in  the 
conduct  of  the  business  and  we  understood  the 
meaning  of  real  values.  Such  an  understanding 
would,  it  seems  to  me,  be  very  desirable  at  this 
time.  It  would  certainly  assist  our  young  men 
in  arriving  at  a  proper  sense  of  proportion. 

In  August,  1858,  I  arrived  in  Alton,  Madi- 
son County,  Illinois,  where  I  found  work  as 
cashier  in  a  mill  and  distillery,  and  remained 
there  for  more  than  a  year,  when  I  became 
employed  in  a  bank.  My  duties  here  -were 
varied.  I  opened  the  doors  in  the  morning, 
built  the  fires,  swept  the  office,  kept  the  books 
and  assisted  as  paying  and  receiving  teller.  It 
was  here  that  I  enjoyed  the  association  with 
the  cashier,  D.  D.  Ryrie.  He  was  as  fine  a 
man  as  I  have  ever  known — just,  generous, 
kindly,  conservative  and  reliable  to  a  degree. 
Free  from  prejudice,  he  held  the  friendship  of 
all  the  people  of  the  community,  although  in 
those  days,  just  prior  to  the  civil  war,  contro- 
versy was  most  bitter  and  friends  and  families 
became  estranged. 


As  a  boy  I  had  some  recollection  of  the 
gold  fever  and  I  remember  the  movement  to- 
wards the  Colorado  country  in  the  "Pike's 
Peak  or  Bust"  days.  When  I  first  came  west 
the  Missouri  river  was  a  great  thoroughfare — 
there  was  but  one  line  of  railway  west  of  the 
Mississippi  river — the  Missouri  Pacific.  I  re- 
call the  discussion  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty  and  I  remember  all  about  the  Fremont 
campaign.  I  was  ten  years  old  when  the  Clay- 
ton-Bulwer treaty  was  signed. 

After  a  year  in  the  employ  of  the  bank  at 
Alton  I  was  elected  secretary  and  treasurer  of 
the  Alton  and  St.  Louis  Packet  Company, 
whose  principal  business  was  the  carrying  of 
passengers  and  freight  for  the  Chicago  and 
Alton  Railroad  to  and  from  St.  Louis,  the  ter- 
minal of  the  road  at  that  time  being  at  Alton. 
I  acted  as  freight  clerk,  purser  and  did  such 
other  work  as  would  tend  to  enhance  my  use- 
fulness to  my  employers. 

It  was  while  I  was  employed  on  the  steam- 
boat that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  now  King  Ed- 
ward VII  of  England,  visited  the  United 
States.  His  tour  was  in  charge  of  Lord 
Lyons,  then  British  minister  to  this  country. 
The  Prince,  Lord  Lyons  and  their  suites  went 
from  Alton  to  St.  Louis  on  our  boat,  the 
steamer  B.  M.  Runyan,  and  I  remember  that 
it  was  a  great  show.  The  Prince  was  a  young- 
ster, a  year  younger  than  I,  but  he  was  the 
sensation  of  the  day.  The  river  was  filled  with 
boats  and  all  of  them  were  loaded  to  their 
greatest  capacity.  St.  Louis  went  fairly  crazy 
and  when  the  steamer  tied  up  at  the  wharf  the 
mayor,  and  it  seemed  to  me,  everybody,  met 


him  and  gave  him  a  grand  reception.  It  was  a 
great  sight.  I  do  not  remember  that  the  Prince 
said  anything  on  the  trip.  He  was  merely 
sight-seeing.  Whatever  talking  was  done  was 
done  at  the  banquets  given  in  his  honor,  and 
I  did  not  attend  any  of  them.  I  do  remember 
that  the  Prince  and  his  party  came  from 
Dwight,  Illinois,  where  he  had  been  visiting 
some  friends  of  his,  and  that  after  hunting 
prairie  chickens  for  a  few  days  he  visited  St. 
Louis. 

As  I  look  back  upon  the  time  when  I  was 
on  the  steamboat  I  realize  more  than  I  did 
then  that  it  was  an  epoch-making  period.  It 
was  the  time  of  the  Lincoln  and  Douglas  de- 
bates. I  remember  them  all  distinctly,  but 
what  impressed  me  most  at  Alton  was  the 
speaking  of  a  man  named  Merrick,  who  came 
from  Chicago  and  followed  them.  He  was 
allied  with  Douglas,  was  a  finished  orator  and 
made  the  finest  speeches  I  have  ever  listened 
to  in  my  entire  experience. 

The  Democratic  convention  of  1860  is  still 
fresh  in  my  memory  as  is  that  of  the  seceding 
members  who  met  at  Baltimore.  I  was  living 
in  St.  Louis  at  the  time  and  the  people  of  that 
day  never  really  dreamed  of  war.  It  had  not 
entered  the  minds  of  the  majority  of  them  at 
all.  It  was  not  until  after  the  firing  upon 
Fort  Sumter  that  the  people  began  to  get 
serious.  Then  it  struck  everybody  at  once  and 
sent  them  into  a  frenzy.  The  frivolous  ones 
got  into  the  penitentiary  because  of  their  loud 
talking,  and  those  who  wanted  to  go  to  war 
had  a  chance  to  go. 

I  have  but  little  recollection  of  the  Repub- 


lican  national  convention  at  Chicago,  but  I  do 
remember  that  the  nomination  of  Lincoln 
caused  a  sensation.  I  gave  little  attention  to 
politics. 

At  that  time  Lincoln  was  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage. He  was  not  so  very  widely  known, 
and  his  appearance  was  ungainly.  Douglas 
was  very  generally  known  and  was  a  great 
man.  He  was  a  noted  orator,  had  been  in  the 
United  States  senate  for  some  time,  and  had 
held  other  offices. 

With  the  election  came  intense  excite- 
ment all  over  the  country.  Being  on  the  bor- 
der, I  was  right  in  the  heat  of  it  all.  It  is 
difficult  at  this  day  to  realize  the  feeling  to- 
ward those  people  who  opposed  or  criticised 
the  war.  Our  packet  company  carried  the 
arms  and  cartridges  and  all  the  military  stores 
from  the  arsenal  below  St.  Louis  for  the  State 
of  Illinois  at  the  time  Camp  Jackson  was 
established. 

In  1861  came  the  death  of  Douglas.  It  was 
felt  all  over  the  country.  At  Alton,  where  I 
was,  there  was  a  memorial  service,  as  there 
were  similar  services  throughout  the  country. 
All  of  the  orators  expressed  themselves  as  be- 
lieving the  death  of  Douglas  to  be  the  greatest 
calamity  which  could  befall  the  country.  It 
struck  me  as  hypocritical  when  I  remembered 
that  but  a  short  time  before  I  had  heard  some 
of  these  same  men  deriding  him. 

The  civil  war  came  and  in  the  first  battles 
the  Confederates  were  successful.  My  most 
vivid  impression  of  those  days  is  that  it  forced 
the  people  of  the  town  of  Alton  to  organize 
a  sort  of  protective  agency,  a  sort  of  insurance 


company,  to  insure  men  against  being  drafted 
into  the  army.  To  avoid  the  draft  meant  the 
payment  of  fifty  or  one  hundred  dollars.  Be- 
sides this  we  all  contributed  to  support  the 
families  of  those  who  went  to  war,  as  the  gov- 
ernment was  slow  in  paying.  The  people  of 
Alton  were  intensely  loyal  to  the  Union  as  a 
rule. 

Many  Confederate  prisoners  were  brought 
to  Alton.  Many  of  them  had  friends  there, 
and  visiting  friends  in  prison  became  quite  an 
important  social  function.  As  a  rule,  the  Con- 
federate officers  were  permitted  to  stroll  the 
streets  on  parole  and  they  were  treated  very 
well  by  the  citizens.  There  was  little  or  no 
bitterness,  and  I  have  been  greatly  impressed 
by  the  wonder  of  this  thing  called  war — to 
think  that  people  will  shoot  at  each  other  to 
kill  and  then  lay  down  their  arms  and  come 
together  like  brothers.  But  they  did  just  this 
thing  in  the  sixties. 

The  assassination  of  Lincoln  was  the  ter- 
rible thing  of  the  time,  and  then  history  trav- 
eled fast  until  the  impeachment  of  Andrew 
Johnson,  or,  rather,  the  attempt  to  impeach 
the  president.  I  do  not  think  that  Johnson  was 
considered  a  strong  man  at  that  time;  the  gen- 
eral impression  was  that  he  was  weak  and 
hesitating.  I  saw  him  but  once — at  the  time 
he  swung  around  the  circle.  With  him  was 
General  Grant  and  staff.  They  came  to  Alton 
from  Chicago  and  then  to  St.  Louis  on  our 
packet  line.  There  was  an  immense  party 
of  distinguished  people  on  the  trip,  and  one 
of  the  boats  was  named  after  the  president. 
I  recall  that  the  steamer  B.  M.  Runyan  of  our 


line  and  the  Andrew  Johnson  of  the  St.  Louis 
&  Keokuk  Packet  Company  were  lashed  to- 
gether and  steamed  down  the  river  in  com- 
pany. The  stream  was  filled  with  boats,  and 
everybody  who  could  came  out  to  get  a  sight 
of  the  head  of  the  nation. 

I  was  with  the  packet  company  until  we 
sold  out  in  1865,  the  year  that  the  railroad  was 
finished  through  to  St.  Louis.  Those  years 
were  valuable  years  to  me,  for  the  qualifica- 
tions of  a  clerk  in  those  days  required  that 
he  should  know  all  about  his  business  and  be 
able  to  answer  questions  intelligently  and 
patiently.  Some  times  I  think  that  the  young 
men  of  the  present  day  are  too  highly  spe- 
cialized and  know  too  little  of  the  details  of 
their  business.  It  might  be  better  for  both 
employer  and  employe  if  fundamental  knowl- 
edge was  more  appreciated  than  it  appears  to 
be  at  this  time. 

After  the  packet  company  was  sold  I  was 
superintendent  of  the  Merchants  &  Peoples 
line  of  steamers,  running  between  St.  Louis 
and  New  Orleans,  for  a  year.  My  uncles,  John 
J.  and  W.  H.  Mitchell,  had  taken  the  contract 
from  the  United  States  government  for  all 
river  transportation  of  freight  and  soldiers 
from  St.  Louis  to  New  Orleans.  They  sublet 
this  to  Edward  Walsh  and  David  White  of 
St.  Louis,  and  my  especial  business  was  to 
attend  to  the  collection  from  the  government 
for  all  shipments,  etc. 

In  the  following  year  my  uncle  contracted 
to  deliver  railroad  iron  from  East  St.  Louis 
to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  by  water  for  the  Credit 
Mobilier  of  America,  which  was  then  building 


the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  to  Ogden.  I  at- 
tended to  the  details  of  the  shipments,  paying 
the  freight  from  the  iron  mills  in  Pennsylvania 
to  East  St.  Louis,  reshipping  by  water  to 
Omaha,  and  drawing  on  the  Credit  Mobilier 
at  its  headquarters  in  New  York.  During  that 
entire  period  I  paid  freight,  attaching  bills  to 
draft  on  New  York,  requiring  no  statements, 
and  this  despite  the  fact  that  the  account 
totaled  several  millions  of  dollars,  a  stupen- 
dous amount  of  money  in  those  days. 

When  the  golden  spike  was  driven  at  Og- 
den in  the  presence  of  a  great  gathering  of 
notable  people,  Samuel  Bowles,  editor  of  the 
Springfield,  Ma^.sachusetts,  Republican,  was 
present  and  afterward  wrote  a  history  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  up  to  that  time.  When 
it  was  published  I  read  it,  and  I  have  been  a 
subscriber  to  and  have  read  the  Springfield 
Republican  ever  since.  I  consider  it  the  ablest 
newspaper  published,  and  my  Sunday  reading 
of  it  is  still  my  great  pleasure.  I  should  con- 
sider myself  sorrowfully  unfortunate  were  I 
to  be  deprived  of  it  to-day. 

Late  in  1867,  at  Alton,  I  embarked  in  thef 
wholesale  grocery  business,  the  firm  name  be- 
ing R.  Debow  &  Co.  Mr.  Debow,  a  porter, 
and  myself  constituted  the  entire  staff  and  our 
rent  was  $600  a  year.  I  did  the  traveling  and 
covered  the.  territory  within  a  hundred  miles. 
Our  expense  account  was  less  than  $2,500  per 
annum.  Our  annual  sales  were  about  $250,- 
000.  In  1869  I  sold  my  interest  in  the  firm, 
and  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1870,  I  arrived 
in  Chicago. 

After  looking  about  for  some  months  for 


an  opportunity  to  get  into  active  business 
again,  I  formed  a  copartnership  with  Peter 
Van  Schaack  and  Robert  Stevenson  in  the 
wholesale  drug  business  under  the  firm  name 
of  Van  Schaack,  Stevenson  &  Reid.  We 
were  successors  to  E.  P.  Dwyer  &  Co.  When 
we  started  the  new  firm  Stevenson  was  one 
of  the  partners  of  E.  P.  Dwyer  &  Co.  and 
Van  Schaack  was  of  the  firm  of  Burnham  & 
Van  Schaack.  The  house  opened  in  June, 
1870,  at  92  and  94  Lake  street,  opposite  the 
old  Tremont  House,  and  we  did  a  flourishing 
business  from  the  start. 

The  great  fire  of  1871  destroyed  our  store, 
stock  and  all,  but  we  were  perhaps  the  most 
fortunate  of  any  Chicago  merchants  of  the 
time.  I  was  a  late  comer,  and  when  the  firm 
was  organized  and  I  applied  for  insurance  I 
found  that  I  could  not  get  it  placed  in  the 
Chicago  agencies,  as  they  were  carrying  all 
they  wished  on  that  class  of  risks.  As  a  result 
I  was  obliged  to  place  the  insurance  in  outside 
companies,  and  when  the  adjustment  was  had 
we  realized  eighty-five  per  cent  of  our  loss. 

Within  thirty  days  we  had  opened  a  store 
at  Wabash  avenue  and  Eighteenth  street  in 
an  old  frame  church  building  and  remained 
there  until  our  former  Lake  street  store  was 
rebuilt.  Owing  to  our  good  fortune  in  the 
insurance  matter  we  did  a  profitable  business 
that  year,  paying  interest  on  our  investment, 
a  remarkable  showing.  Our  firm  never  had  a 
traveling  agent,  and  for  eight  years,  or  dur- 
ing our  copartnership,  we  divided  and  paid 
our  profits  in  cash  on  the  first  day  of  April 
of  each  year.    We  were  successful  because  we 


adopted  the  method  of  keeping  down  large 
stocks  and  were  particularly  careful  in  the 
matter  of  extending  credit.  The  business  con- 
tinued as  Van  Schaack,  Stevenson  &  Reid 
until  1879,  when  I  sold  my  interest  and  re- 
tired. 

From  1879  until  1890  I  was  almost  out  of 
business  owing  to  the  condition  of  my  health, 
and  during  that  time  I  made  three  trips  to 
Europe.  Then  I  entered  the  Illinois  Trust 
and  Savings  Bank  as  vice-president.  This 
was  largely  an  experiment  at  the  time.  I  had 
been  a  director  since  1882,  but  with  returning 
health  I  was  anxious  to  busy  myself  again. 

I  built  my  present  house,  2013  Prairie  ave- 
nue, in  1894,  one  year  after  the  World's  Fair, 
but  I  have  lived  in  the  same  place  since  April, 
1871.  The  location,  now  considered  very  close 
to  the  business  center,  was  then  a  long  way 
out  in  the  suburbs.  It  was  mostly  a  sand 
dune,  and  there  was  but  one  house  north  of 
Twentieth  street  from  mine.  The  building 
has  occurred  since  I  first  located.  Pullman, 
Field,  Campbell,  Kellogg— all  of  them  came 
after. 

The  street  car  service  would  be  a  joke 
now.  There  were  bob-tail  cars  in  Indiana 
avenue,  one-horse  cars,  and  no  conductor; 
each  passenger  dropped  his  nickel  in  the  slot 
at  the  driver's  end. 

This  digression  concerning  horse  cars  re- 
minds me  of  the  first  Pullman  sleeper.  I  was 
with  the  Alton  &  St.  Louis  Packet  Company 
when  I  first  met  George  Pullman.  He  had 
built   a   car   at   Bloomington   and   brought   it 


down  to  Alton  over  the  Chicago  &  Alton  Rail- 
road to  exhibit.  The  sleeper  was  built  out  of 
an  old  passenger  car,  and  it  was  a  great  sensa- 
tion. The  berths  were  in  tiers  of  three,  and 
it  was  a  long  climb  to  the  top.  The  car  went 
into  service  between  Chicago  and  Alton  and 
became  popular.  Marvin  Hughitt  was  a  train 
dispatcher  on  the  road  in  those  days  and  was 
in  charge  at  Bloomington.  During  the  war 
he  frequently  came  to  Alton  in  charge  of  sol- 
diers' trains.  And  this  all  reminds  me  of  the 
railroad  facilities  in  the  early  days.  When 
I  came  west  in  1858,  we  changed  cars  seven  or 
eight  times  between  Ohio  and  Alton.  I  re- 
member that  we  changed  at  Bellaire,  Newark, 
Columbus,  Xenia,  Dayton,  Indianapolis,  Terre 
Haute  and  Alton  Junction  before  we  reached 
Alton.  The  cars  of  that  time  were  connected 
by  a  link  and  there  would  be  a  foot  or  more 
play  betvs^een  cars  when  the  train  started  or 
stopped,  bumping  all  the  time  and  keeping  up 
a  continuous  rattling.  The  rails  were  on 
chairs,  the  chairs  nailed  to  ties,  and  the  going 
was  very  rough.  The  brakes  were  operated 
by  hand,  and  the  inconveniences  were  many, 
but  it  was  really  good  traveling  in  those  days 
if  the  traveler  was  interested  in  his  fellows. 
A  traveler  met  everybody  and  everybody  was 
friendly  and  interested.  Travel  in  those  days 
was  educating  and  interesting  despite  the 
trouble. 

But  it  is  not  my  intention  in  setting  down 
these  lines  to  contribute  more  than  a  few  side- 
lights to  the  history  of  the  times  in  which  I 
have  lived.  I  have  purposely  skimmed  over 
events   and   have   set   down   what   I   have   in 


/ 


order  to  accentuate  the  fact  of  continuous 
progress,  the  process  rather  than  the  results. 
And  as  my  energy  has  been  largely  given  for 
seventeen  years  to  active  work  as  a  general 
officer  of  the  Illinois  Trust  and  Savings  Bank, 
I  think  it  proper  to  indicate  a  bit  of  its  prog- 
ress as  is  shown  in  the  following  statements 
selected  at  random  and  illustrating  its  rather 
remarkable  growth  from  footings  of  $2,000,000 
to  more  than  $106,000,000. 

Statement  December  30,  1882 

RESOURCES. 
United     States     4^     per 

cent  bonds    $100,200  00 

United  States  4  per  cent. 

bonds,  at  par   400,350  00 

Premiums   on   same 60,765  77       $561,315  77 

Other  Bonds    307,625  00 

Premiums  on  same 26,668  00         334,293  00 

Cash  and  Exchange   239,260  75 

Real   Estate    322  74 

Loans  on  demand 1,149,334  15 

Loans  on  time    287,069  63 

Loans   on  real  estate 254,564  14      1,690,967  92 


$2,826,160  18 


LIABILITIES. 

Capital    Stock    $500,000  00 

Surplus    Fund    41,331  48       $541,331  48 

Undivided  Profits   29,387  60 

Due   Depositors    2,255,441  10 


$2,826,160  18 


Statement  March  20,  1895 

RESOURCES. 

Bonds  and  Stocks $3,472,821  49 

Cash  and   Exchange 6,435,874  13 

Demand  Loans  on  Col- 
laterals     $8,255,578  31 

Time  Loans  on  Collat- 
erals       4,583,023  35 

Loans  on  Real  Estate . . .  2,897,981  66     15,736,583  32 


$25,645,278  94 

LIABILITIES. 

Capital  Stock  paid  in . . .  $2,000,000  00 

Surplus  Fund   1,000,000  00 

Undivided  Profits    943,982  69 

Time  Deposits   $10,799,361  05 

Demand   Deposits    10,901,935  20    21,701,296  25 


$25,645,278  94 


Statement  December  14,  1900 

RESOURCES. 

Stocks  and  Bonds $14,266,340  60 

Cash  and  Exchange. . . .  21,365,058  34 

Real   Estate    240,123  94 

Demand  Loans  on  Col- 
laterals     $29,309,230  13 

Time  Loans  on  Collat- 
erals         5,260,393  09 

Loans  on  Real  Estate. .     1,876,810  48    $36,446,433  70 


$72,317,956  58 

LIABILITIES. 

Capital  Stock  paid  in . . .  $3,000,000  00 

Surplus  Fund   2,000,000  00 

Undivided  Profits   1,906,670  38 

Demand   Deposits    $30,147,349  72 

Time    Deposits    35,263,936  48  65,411,286  20 


$72,317,956  58 


Statement  August  20,  1907 

RESOURCES. 

Demand  Loans  on  Col- 
lateral     $27,086,923  21 

Time  Loans  on  Collat- 
eral     45,112,645  90 

Loans  on  Real  Estate . .        948,739  36    $73,148,308  47 

Real  Estate   46,182  92 

Bonds  and  Stocks 15,964,870  37 

Cash  and   Exchange...  17,794,209  78 

$106,953,571  54 
LIABILITIES. 

Capital  Stock  paid  in..  $  4,500,000  00 

Surplus  Fund   6,500,000  00 

Undivided  Profits  1,527,597  56 

Demand  Deposits $29,509,853  45 

Time  Deposits    64,916,120  53  94,425,973  98 

$106,953,571  54 

As  I  have  had  something  to  do  with  this 
progress  and  have  been  practically  a  superin- 
tendent of  detail  I  feel  that  I  have  a  right  to 
consider  myself  an  ideal  bank  officer  in  that 
line.  And  in  the  matter  of  detail  I  can  best 
illustrate  my  point  by  quoting  from  a  letter 
which  I  wrote  to  a  New  York  banker  in  1902 
in  answer  to  a  letter  from  him  requesting  in- 
formation as  to  how  the  Illinois  Trust  and 
Savings  Bank  managed  to  round  up  its  busi- 
ness every  day  by  5  o'clock.  Among  other 
things  I  wrote: 

"The  business  of  our  bank  is  largely  a  city 
business,  while  we  have  about  4,300  checking 
accounts,  receiving  about  800  deposits  and 
paying  out  about  4,000  checks  daily.  The 
work  is  systematized  so  that  we  are  able  to 
lock  the  cash  vault  for  one  week  each  month 


from  3:45  to  4  p.  m.,  the  balance  of  the  time 
from  4  to  4:30 — rarely  later.  Bookkeepers 
have  about  350  accounts  each  and  are  gen- 
erally able  to  leave  the  office  at  4:30,  and  sel- 
dom later  than  5:30. 

"In  our  savings  department  last  month  we 
opened  2,733  new  accounts,  received  23,258 
deposits  and  paid  out  29,201  debits.  Book- 
keeping in  this  department  is  easier,  although 
we  have  over  108,000  accounts.  Trial  balance 
is  taken  off  in  two  sessions  of  six  hours  each, 
after  hours,  twice  a  year,  with  the  aid  of  add- 
ing machines.  Accounts  in  this  department 
are  also  kept  in  sections.  Our  methods  have 
grown  upon  us,  but  consist  in  commencing 
promptly — a  general  officer  at  8  a.  m.  and  all 
employes  at  work  at  8 :30.  Everything  cleared 
ready  before  opening  at  10  o'clock,  after  which 
nothing  must  be  deferred  until  closing  that 
can  possibly  be  attended  to.  We  keep  plenty 
of  help  to  supply  vacations  and  ordinary  ill- 
ness of  employes,  all  of  which  is  conducive 
of  desire  to  excel  and  facilitate  business;  but 
first  of  all  it  is  the  officer  who  must  set  the 
pace  and  have  the  enthusiasm,  after  which  the 
problem  is  easy.  My  observation  is  that  de- 
lays are  generally  because  of  officers  delaying 
business  until  after  hours,  so  that  work  is 
delayed  in  consequence." 

There  is  another  thing  which  appeals  to 
me  strongly.  While,  of  course,  concentration 
of  effort  and  purpose  brings  results,  success 
comes  only  to  those  in  whom  it  is  inborn.  I 
have  always  believed  that  no  man  could  con- 
trol that,  no  matter  how  he  planned.  Of 
course,  everyone  must  needs  shape  his  means 


to  an  ultimate  end,  but  the  success  that  places 
a  man  above  his  fellows,  the  striking  success 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world — that  must  be  inborn. 

IN  MY  EXPERIENCE  AS  A  BANK 
OFFICER  I  HAVE  ALWAYS  OPPOSED 
THE  BONDING  OF  EMPLOYES.  I  be- 
lieve that  it  makes  for  criminal  suggestion. 
Bonds  cannot  assist  character  building  and  all 
the  penalties  in  the  world  will  not  assist 
young  men  to  honesty.  Bankers,  of  all  others, 
should  recognize  manhood  and  by  their  own 
acts  should  inculcate  in  their  employes  a  sense 
of  obligation — that  is  the  saving  thing.  More 
young  men  are  led  astray  by  the  example  of 
their  so-called  superiors  than  by  any  other  one 
thing,  and  the  dummy  bank  director  is  a  men- 
ace not  only  to  his  bank,  but  to  the  character 
of  the  employes.  Bank  officers  should  be  men 
of  education,  free  from  greed,  not  intent  upon 
the  amassing  of  wealth  and  of  the  sort  whose 
influence,  conscious  or  unconscious,  makes  for 
betterment.  I  may  perhaps  illustrate  more 
clearly  by  quoting  an  editorial  from  the 
Springfield  Republican. 

"Of  protective  measures  against  dishon- 
esty in  moneyed  institutions  there  should,  of 
course,  be  no  lack  within  the  reasonable 
bounds  of  human  ingenuity  and  effort,  but 
after  all  has  been  done  there  must  be  large 
reliance  upon  simple  individual  honesty.  All 
the  bolts  and  bars  and  detective  devices  pos- 
sible of  application  cannot  prevent  heavy  de- 
pendence upon  the  normal  human  conscience 
which  commands  that  'thou  shalt  not  steal.' 

"Preferable  probably  to  obtrusive  detective 
devices   in  the  protection  of  a  bank,   which 


seem  to  place  everybody  within  it  under  con- 
stant suspicion  and  accusation,  would  be  a 
policy  of  cultivating  in  the  force  a  sense  of 
each  one's  responsibility  and  the  trustfulness 
in  which  he  is  held.  Conscience  is  still  a 
necessary  and  paramount  fact  in  our  business 
life,  and  but  for  it  we  should  go  to  pieces  in 
short  order." 

I  have  written  all  this  because  now  that  I 
am  leaving  business  on  account  of  my  health 
I  feel  that  it  is  due  to  myself  and  to  the  friends 
to  whom  I  wish  to  communicate  to  relate  my 
personal  experiences  and  the  trend  of  my  life. 
There  was  no  limit  to  what  a  boy  had  to  do 
in  the  days  of  my  youth.  The  atmosphere 
in  which  we  were  brought  up  was  such  that  it 
compelled  the  doing  of  things.  There  was 
virtue  in  the  birch  rod  and  the  shorter  cate- 
chism, and  all  through  life  there  was  empha- 
sized the  value  of  the  old-fashioned  virtues — 
patience,  prudence,  perseverence,  persistence 
and  plodding.  These  virtues  ought  to  be 
spelled  with  a  capital  P.  They  are  too  little 
realized  and  appreciated,  especially  by  the 
youngsters. 

This  plain  tale  is  just  to  encourage  some 
one,  perhaps,  to  believe  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  practical  side  of  life  and  that  it 
is  within  the  reach  of  anybody  who  will  pay 
the  price — patient  and  strict  attention  to  busi- 
ness and  association  with  superior  people, 
mentally  and  morally  superior  people. 


to! 


Rfrffi 


■>K, 


